never stop learning

[gdp1]

We almost lost one of our old mares today. We have been treating her sinus infection with penicillin injections for 5 days. 25 cc each morning with no problems but she did not appear to be getting any better. She still had the same thick yellow discharge from just one nostril. We gave her another penicillin shot this morning and decided that if she did not get better today we would take her into the vet. Shortly after her shot she went into colic and we struggled desperately to keep up and moving. We walked her for an hour or more and she had a couple bowl movements and she became a little steadier so we hauled her to the vet. The vet determined that she was having an allergic reaction to the penicillin and that if we had not kept her up and moving she would not have survived it. She said that it was not really that uncommon to not have a reaction to several injections and then suddenly have one. We also found out that the sinus infection was from hay and grain getting packed into a spot where she had a tooth removed a year ago. The impaction was causing pressure on just one sinus hence the discharge from just one nostril. After cleaning out the impaction and getting her on a different antibiotic she will be just fine. always something new to learn when working with these older horses.

[bcfilly]

Glad to hear she's pulled through okay. With those older ones you just never know sometimes

[NanciK]

Last week on the Re-Train TBs board, there was a loooong thread about this very topic. Here's the key post, below, and to view the dozens of responses, you'll have to navigate here (and register):
sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/retraintbs/message/94950

"Re: [retraintbs] Penicillin ...

Actually, it often doesn't have anything to do with an allergic reaction. It has almost everything to do with whether or not you get any of the penicillin in the bloodstream. It can and does happen, even to vets, and it's horrible when things go wrong. Horrible is an EXTREME UNDERSTATEMENT. I'd been administering shots for years, penicillin included. I could give them as well, or better, than the next guy. But one fateful time, I gave a standard shot to a gelding I'd already been treating, switching neck sides, popping the needle in without the syringe, attaching the syringe and drawing back before/during/after the administration of the shot, and then pulled the entire thing out. Nothing abnormal, everything completely standard.

THEN disaster struck.

He started breathing irratically, then moaning and looking somewhat frantic, eyes rolling, swaying, so I untied him and started trying to walk him, but he kept staggering, almost falling on me a few times. So I took off the leadrope so he could move around by himself. By now, I was pretty scared. Didn't really know what was happening, but I could tell it was BAD. He was staggering extensively, having a hard time staying upright, eyes rolling all over the place, heavy and irregular breathing, and the worst part was that he was "screaming". Yes, screaming. I've never heard anything like it before or since, and never want to hear that again. All the other horses were in an adjacent pasture and they came running when they heard his distress calls. They could hear the panic in his calls. He was scared (heck, we both were!), he was in pain, disoriented and uncoordinated. He tried to gallop, and somehow succeeded to get across the pasture and back again. Then he went down and never got up again, but continued to scream somehow between his irregular deep breaths.

God, it was a nightmare unfolding right in front of me, and I still have REAL nightmares about it. I killed him. Completely unintentionally, and I was trying to help him shake off a minor case of sinus drainage, but I killed him with a shot of penicillin that was totally standard and safe. I will NEVER give another penicillin shot again, as long as I live. NEVER will be too soon to see another horse go through what that boy did that day.

The vets I spoke with on the phone after that all told me that it happens from time to time, even to them. No matter how careful you are, it can still happen.

A good friend of mine who raises goats and horses, and has given countless injections of all kinds, has also killed a few goats over the years from penicillin shots. She hasn't lost a horse yet, but knows fully well that it could happen. She agrees with me that the goats suffered before they died. It isn't good, not one little bit.

I keep oral antibiotics on hand, and know how to dose and administer them safely and efficiently. I request that my vets use alternative antibiotics that can be administered via IV as well as IM, so I don't run the same risks as you do with penicillin. Even if these other antibiotics are more expensive, I consider it well worth it to avoid the potential of accidental death by penicillin. They all know why I make these requests and they understand. Mainly because most of them have experienced it first hand, and know the horror of it all.

OK, I'm gonna go have a good cry now. That horse's death will be with me always, and it's right at the surface now.

Respectfully, Lexi"

[cybercat]

oh, Lord...that sounds so horrendous...

[Admin]

wow.....so glad to hear she pulled through! That stuff is scary!

[gdp1]

Actually penicillin is not all that dangerous. Just like in the human population, an allergic reaction can occur but it is rare and if handled properly a horse or human will normally recover from it. Injected directly into the blood stream probably will kill a horse or a human but if administered properly that just doesn’t happen. I have personally done hundreds of injections and seen many more and have never seen anyone screw up and get it directly into the blood stream. In fact this is the first time I have ever seen an allergic reaction.
Anyway the real point of my post was the cause of the sinus infection in the first place. Older horses often have dental work done with no problems. I was suspecting another bad tooth so I was surprised that after a year the one we had pulled would develop complications.